Gleanings : a Christmas card for 1898. (Presentation copy, inscribed by Lord Brassey for Western Australian gold mining magnate Charles Gordon Lyon)

A$125 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

/ [compiled by Lord] Brassey. Printed for private circulation . London : Printed by Strangeways Sons, Tower Street, Cambridge Circus, W.C., [1898]. (Colophon). Octavo (190 x 130 mm), original card covers in gilt-stamped paper wrappers, a presentation copy inscribed by Brassey on the upper wrapper Gordon C. Lyon, with every good wish for 1899 , top edge gilt, verso of front free-endpaper with small ex libris of C. Gordon Lyon , pp [8], 183; a fine presentation copy with an interesting Western Australian association. Compiled by Lord Brassey, Governor of the Colony of Victoria, and self-published in London while he was on leave in England in 1898, this is an anthology of short quotes and longer extracts, touching on a huge variety of subjects, from the prose and poetry of English writers and thinkers throughout history. Trove locates 3 copies (Monash University Library; NLA; SLV) Lord Brassey presumably made the acquaintance of gold mining magnate Charles Gordon Lyon (1867-1958) on one of his visits to Western Australia, where he owned land. Note, however, the error in Brassey s inscription: he reverses the order of Lyon s first and middle names. From History of West Australia , by Warren Bert Kimberly: In Western Australia several names are associated with the glories of the goldfields, and one of these is that of Mr. C. Gordon Lyon . He struck the key to his fortune at a time when the ears or the earth were open to the startling news of the gold discoveries of Coolgardie. Nor

• Binding: Hardcover

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